GUANTÁNAMO
The Sadim (Midas, backwards) touch of the woebegone G. Walker administrations twists, cheapens, turns to dross and corrupts every institution which it touches.
Military doctors violate medical ethics when they approve the force-feeding of hunger strikers at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, according to a commentary in a prestigious medical journal.
The doctors should attempt to prevent force-feeding by refusing to participate, the commentary’s three authors write in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
“In medicine, you can’t force treatment on a person who doesn’t give their voluntary informed consent,” said Dr. Sondra Crosby of Boston University, one of the authors. “A military physician needs to be a physician first and a military officer second, in my opinion.”
As of Tuesday, 20 of 23 fasting detainees at Guantanamo were being fed liquid meals through flexible tubes inserted through their noses and throats, said Guantanamo spokesman navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt. The strikers are protesting conditions at the camp and their open-ended confinement.
A few physicians have declined to participate in force-feeding, although the specific number has not been tracked, Haupt said. The military does not punish doctors who won’t participate in force-feeding, Haupt wrote Friday in an e-mail response to questions from The Associated Press.
[snip]
The commentary calls on professional organizations to back doctors who refuse to participate in force-feeding. Commentaries are the opinions of the authors, not of the journal’s editors or of the American Medical Association, but the AMA has endorsed the World Medical Association’s policy against force-feeding. Article
